 The story of our world reveals the enormous challenges farmers and rural communities have faced. Communities made up of over 2.5 billion people whose livelihoods have always depended on factors largely outside of their control and whose successes and struggles have influenced their areas' development and food supply. It's a story that maps out the paths nomadic herders have travelled, moving hundreds of kilometres a year to find pastures for their herds, sometimes clashing with farmers when water and grazing were scarce. It's a tale of a changing climate, bringing floods that have devastated homes and crops and created ideal conditions for relentless swarms of locusts. It's an account of droughts that have gone on and on destroying farms and growing hunger. With more female food producers in the global south, it's a narrative that has affected women the most. A burden made worse by widespread gender inequality. Farmers and rural communities have been torn apart by disasters and resilience has always been key to their survival. But now, there's an unfamiliar blot in our story, something we have never encountered before. COVID-19, a pandemic affecting the entire world. At no other point in history have farmers and rural communities faced so many known and unknown threats, connecting, overlapping, making everything worse. A health crisis overlaps with a climate crisis, putting even more people at risk of hunger than before. As restrictions close borders and markets, small-scale farmers already struggling to make a living cannot sell their produce, nor can they obtain seeds and fertiliser for the next planting season. Lands remain uncultivated, there is less access to food than before, and the threat of famine looms. Restrictions prevent pastoralists from moving with their animals. As food, water and opportunities to trade dry up, they risk losing their animals and their livelihoods. Disputes over resources worsen, not just with farmers, but with other groups of pastoralists contained in the same areas. Lockdowns and school closures mean more women and girls are away from fields and school. Their livelihoods and futures threatened, while harmful gender norms worsen behind closed doors. Our farmers and rural communities are resilient, but they are facing too many hardships and threats all at once, putting our entire food system at risk. Our story doesn't have to continue like this. With every urgent and ambitious action we take to address the pandemic and its growing impact, we have an opportunity to introduce a new chapter rooted in sustainability, rebuilding and improving food systems and livelihoods, and breaking the vicious cycles communities have struggled against for too long. We get to write our future.